A Cobbled Pathway, A Golden Rose
by Anaiese Von Claire
Summary: On an average day for the Classics Club, Satoshi pique's Chitanda's curiosity. The group then decides to go on a hunt for the high school detective Kudou Shin'ichi, who might be harder to find than first thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey y'all, I'm back for more, but this time it's a bit different. Eloquence is key in this story! I'll try my best! **

It was after school on a sunny, but crisp autumn Friday. I shuffled my way across the school to the home of the Classic's Club, the Geography Prep room, in the Specialist Subjectwing. The sun was particularly bright today (that, or I hadn't really noticed it yesterday) and had me puzzling over my shadow. I didn't think about it too much, in fact, my interest was really only at a mindless staring level. I glanced out at the scenery: a cloudless blue sky, red and golden-leafed trees, students bundled up, leaving school like I should...I would try to get out of it if I knew that that intransigent little Missy weren't there. Sighing, I let my brain wander until I reached the clubroom.

I was the last one to show. I didn't mind, and neither did the others, with the exception of Chitanda. However, she only said anything if she had something on her mind. Today I was fortunate enough to discover her as her usual cute self. She was opening up a box of cookies as if she had just arrived. Satoshi was intently reading a newspaper and Mayaka, across from him, was reading a book, with a bored and disinterested face. I walked casually over to my spot at the table, and sat down inertly, dropping my bag next to my chair. I pulled out my latest novel and continued my venture into the realm of fantasy.

It was about at that point that Satoshi, apparently tired of the idyllic scene, spoke up about meaningless stupid stuff. "You know who we haven't heard much from?" he brought up, glancing at Chitanda and me. That look in his eye told me he was up to no good. "That high school detective that used to be in the newspapers all the time."

Chitanda looked thoughtful then nodded. "Kudou Shin'ichi, right?"

Satoshi nodded in reply, giving me a look once again. Stupid idiot, sparking up her inherent curiosity of things. Why do you insist on torturing me?

"Yeah, it's been several months whereas he used to be in the paper every other week. I think it's a bit...curious, don't you, Hotarou?"

"Not at all."

Chitanda looked at Satoshi then at me, her eyes beginning to light up. I refused to research or even think about anything having to do with anything involving a missing person; waaay to much energy. "Oreki-san, I'm..."

"Yes, curious. I know. But frankly I'm not. So let's drop it and let other people figure it out. That's what the police are for."

"But Oreki-san, what if the police don't even know that he's missing?"

"I would assume that a teen who works so closely with the police would be known to be missing by them, you know?"

Chitanda puffed out her cheeks in frustration. I chuckled quietly to myself.

"But it goes the same way, Hotarou, wouldn't the police have found him by now?" Satoshi added, increasing my irritation.

"Not necessarily, Fuku-chan," Mayaka cut in, suddenly interested. "People can be missing for a really long time, even if the police know that they are gone."

I was glad for the argument that took me out of the center ring, but I already knew what this would precipitate into. I could see it on Chtanda's pouting face. I began to lament the day I fell into that hypnotizing stare; day I broke my energy conservation policy; all the times I indulged Chitanda's spur-of-the-moment whims: I groaned over it all quite often. I waited for the inevitable.

"...And that's why we should give a contribution to society!" Satoshi had finished his rant. "Now, Hotarou, I bet we could find some information on that Kudou fellow...let's see..." he pulled out an all-too-convenient laptop computer. I heard him tack away on his keyboard, praying he wouldn't find anything. I heard the typing stop and the clicking start.

"It's amazing how many fan blogs this guy's got," Mayaka noted while glancing over Satohsi's shoulder. Chitanda stood on his other side, eyes gleaming with interest.

"Here we go!" Satoshi crowed. "It says no news has been heard of Kudou-san for xx weeks. It is said that he may have died during a case, others think that he has gone into hiding for unknown reasons. His parents, famous novelist Yuusaku Kudou and world-renown actress Yukiko Kudou seen to be ignorant to the fact that their son has disappeared and have seemingly been without contact with him for quite a while...blah, blah, blah."

"So he's literally disappeared off the face of the Earth?" Mayaka pondered. "Now I'm a little curious myself."

"It says here that someone might know of his whereabouts, but he's all the way in Ôsaka."

"Ôsaka? Who would that be?" Chtanda queered.

"Kudou-san's other half, the 'Detective of the West' it says, his name is..."

* * *

"HATTORI HEIJI AT YER SERVICE!" the cheerful detective beamed at us. He had dark skin which was very unusual, and happened to look even more odd as he stood next to the porcelain white doll that was called Chitanda.

I now begin my internal soap box. Coming here was so much energy and not only energy but money as well...I suppose there's no way to save anything on this case. I sighed forlornly. In hopes that others could hear me and would go home. I wasn't feeling well from the ride, I have a tendency to get car-sick easily and being on a train wasn't helpful in the slightest.

"It's jist great ta have ya ask fer me all the way from the Gifu prefecture! But ya know, I coulda come to ya, I have some people I can stay with ya know..." he looked slightly confused as to why our group, whose average age was the same as his own, had come this far to talk to one person. But it was quite ostentatious that he was flattered to have five people come to see him.

"Oh, no! We wouldn't want to burden you," Chitanda waved her hands to emphasize her point. "Besides, it's been quite a long time since I've been to Ôsaka! I really enjoy coming here!" Speak for yourself.

"That's great! Well then, why don't I give ya a tour while ya explain yer case ta me, huh?"

"Really?!" Satoshi and Mayaka chimed.

"Sure! First we'll stop at..." he wandered off with the others following suit. I grumbled to myself and moseyed a distance behind the others, hoping to not look like a tourist.

* * *

After about an hour of walking we decided to stop in a cafe. I was very grateful and ordered myself a large smoothie, sipping it sulkily in the corner.

"Well now. What's yer request? We neva really got to it whiles we were walkin'." No kidding. You kept blabbing the entire time. Hattori pulled out his notepad like a real detective would.

"We were curious about a missing detective," Chitanda began. "you might know him." Hattori's placid expression disappeared. "Kudou Shin'ichi-san. Do you know him? The internet said you were his counter part and that you two were good friends."

"Ha, ha!" Hattori manifested a panicked countenance. "Kudou, sure I know 'im! But why would I know where he is?" By the way he was acting, I was sure he knew something about this whole occurrence of Kudou's disappearance. But because I still hadn't regained my full supply of energy, and was also lacking in information about our detective, I held my peace and refrained from involving myself just yet. "I'm not sure if I can offer ya my services to look for a person who's been missin' fer so long. He might be kidnapped, or even, ya know, dead. Both aren't uncommon for detectives, ya know."

"But you must know something!" Myaka inserted. "If you knew him, certainly you did some research to try and find him, unless you're like Oreki here and are too lazy to take the time and energy to look for your best friend." Excuse me! Rude much?

"W-who said he and I are best friends, huh? I would hope that ya smart people would know that not everything on the internet is true!" Hattori looked quite befuddled, this even obvious by his lack of polemic refutes. I felt a touch a pity for him.

"We know that's true," Satoshi included. "We'd just like something more to work with than what the internet has to offer, then we can get Hotarou to work it out."

"Hotarou...san... is he a detective as well?" Hattori looked at me with curious eyes, to some extent begging me to call off the dogs of curiosity.

I sighed. "I'm not much of a detective. But I can figure things out...I suppose. It's okay if you don't know anything at this point. We can work with you to figure this disappearance case out." I looked back at him to see his reaction to this. He didn't like the idea, I could tell. "I'm sure you're curious about this too?" I'm sure in his mind we were pinning him down and torturing him. This information wasn't so important to me as to really put much meaning behind my words, but I knew Chitanda's vexing grip of curiosity would tighten until the truth was found. I'm sorry good detective, my apologies.

**I hope you've enjoyed this thus far! sorry for any grammar errors, I read it out loud, but you can always miss things. :D**


	2. Chapter 2

I glanced at my watch then back out of the window. I let out a sigh of boredom. I repeated Hattori's phone call over in my head for the fifth time.

"Hey Kudou! Why don't ya and that nee-chan come ov'r to Ôsaka for a bit, huh? It would be lots of fun!"

"Why?" I retorted. "You know that I'm the one that makes the money in this house and this month's been slow on cases. We don't have the kind of time or money to go over there just willy-nilly. We have to have a reason to go over there."

"Well, I guess I don't really have a reason. But ya should come ov'r so I can take ya to that restaurant..."

"No. That's final."

"Aw, com'mon Kudou..."

"Nope."

I was walking up to the apartment that I was staying in with Ran and her dad when I saw Ran come bounding out of the place. She looked all excited and happy, and Sonoko soon cane after, looking just as perky. Going shopping, I supposed.

"Conan-kun?" Ran saw me and stopped at the base of the stairs, Sonoko almost running into her from the back. "Who's on the phone?"

"Ah, it's Heiji-niichan."

"Oh? Tell him to say hi to Kazuha-chan for me, okay?"

"Mmhmm!"

I turned back to the phone. "Kudou, ya still there?"

"Yeah."

"I just received an e-mail while ya were stallin', and I have a case now!"

"Really?" I put on my most sarcastic tone. I continued to head up the stairs and into the detective office.

"Yeah, it's from a girl by the name of Chitanda Eru-san."

"Chitanda? Isn't that a wealthy family?"

"I don't know, but it means I've a case to solve. And get this, she's from the Gifu prefecture."

"So, because she's coming all that way, I'm justified in why I should come from Tokyo? Not happening."

"Aw come on, Kudou!"

"No. I'm hanging up. I'll talk to you later."

"Wait!" I clapped my phone shut on him.

Now that's the first call I got from him. And I really figured that the trip to Ôsaka was canceled. But then I got his second phone call...

* * *

During school, while we were working on kanji, Hattori called me again. I jumped when it vibrated and bumped into Haibara. She glared at me. I mouthed 'phone' to her and she seemed to understand. So I had to raise my hand and excuse myself from class. I was perturbed at that point. "What?!" I barked into the phone.

"Kudou, this is bad, they're lookin' for ya!"

I was completely confused. "Who?"

"The clients that I told ya about! They're lookin' for ya! What do I say? They're very intent on findin' ya too, so they came to me! I tried ta brush them off and tell 'em no, but especially the one girl, she's so persistent that 'er eyes glow when I say anything about ya. 'Er eyes are HUGE!"

"Whoa, calm down!" I was a little nervous myself. "Are they dressed in black?"

"I really doubt they're a part of that. They're too young lookin', they're our age. But the one has the personality of a B.O. member. He looked at me with the intent of blackmail! I could sense it!" Could there be a organization member that was my age? Haibara is a little older than I am, but not by too much... "I can't really hold 'em off, I don't know how. I told 'em I'd look into it fer them, but they expect a lot out o' me 'cause I'm yer friend. Ya either need ta come here or tell me how to get rid of them!"

"I don't see how my coming there can be much of a help, I might give myself away!" Oh, no! I heard footsteps in the bathroom.

"Conan-kun?" called Mistuhiko's voice.

"I have to go!"

"Kudou, tell me how ta shake them!"

"I'll come over to Ôsaka as soon as possible. If there is anyways at all to distract them..."

"Conan-kun, are you okay? You've been gone awhile..."

"...Do it!" I whispered harshly into the phone, slapping it shut, and shoving it into my pocket. I turned and flushed the toilet then came back out and almost ran into Mitsuhiko.

"Oh there you are Conan-kun. Kobayashi-sensei was worried because you ran out looking a little pale."

"Yeah, just a stomachache..." I lied. "But I'm feeling better now." I smiled faintly searching my brain desperately for an excuse to make a few other phone calls and to go to Ôsaka by myself. I found myself with a lack of ideas so I ended up going back to class with Mitsuhiko.

I sat deep in thought the rest of the day. Once school was let out I ran off by myself to see if I couldn't get a few things sorted out about this trip.

As you can see now, I'm on a train now heading to Ôsaka. My mom was conveniently in town on a trip to visit me so I had her come with me, Ran then, wanted to come too when she found out that my mom was in town and that we were going to Ôsaka. This situation might be a bit tough. I glanced at my watch. We'd arrive at the station in 20 minutes, around 8 o'clock in the morning. Today was going to be a long day and I had to keep my wits about me especially around Ran and these curious tourists. I wish that Ran hadn't have decided to join just in case something came up, but you can't stop the inevitable.

***scratches head* Gah! I liked writing Oreki's chapter better!** **(not that anyone is actually reading this story...) It's up there just because. Yup. **


	3. Chapter 3

Hattori had sent us back to our hotel yesterday afternoon saying that he had to make a few calls to get any information, he then assured us that he would call us back the next day when he obtained what he was looking for. I, for one, wasn't in any hurry, but I was the first one awake. This was a guess because I didn't hear any movement from the girl's room, so I took the liberty to assume they were still blissfully asleep. I rolled over, but couldn't get back to sleep because of the bright sunlight that filled the room. I wondered how Satoshi was still out cold. I glanced at the clock and muttered a curse under my breath. Only 8:30 and for some reason I was wide awake. I sighed and sat up looking around our decorous room provided by Chitanda. I laid eyes upon my prize then rolled the covers off to go collect it.

Despite it being sunny, the room was still cold in my shorts. A more energetic person might move around to warm up. Especially in the morning, I don't have any spare energy for that. I sat the case on my lap and opened Satoshi's laptop. It hadn't singed him out (good luck on my behalf), so I opened an internet tab and decided to do some research until the others woke up.

I did the simple starter for searching for something: I typed in the key words to describe it. I looked at some pictures and websites. Kudou Shin'ich-san looked like the fairly average high-school student. The only noteworthy part was his hair which was about a erratic as my was in the morning, but he intentionally wore it that way. There was a list of people he was often associated with; some police officers, a private detective, a lawyer who often litigated the private detective who must be her husband (or ex-husband), Hattori came up again, scientists, other officers from various prefectures across Japan, a high school girl detective, and the thief Kaito Kid who also showed up quite often in the news and in papers. Not surprisingly, he was even associated with the American police, once solving a case on an airplane and in a theater. He must be pretty good with English to be able to solve a case there. Those cases were in middle school and he's a first-year now. He's been doing this for no more then 2 or 3 years then. Could he possibly rack up so many enemies that quickly?

I then decided to look into further information behind the Kaito Kid cases which was something I actually knew a little about. While Kudou did go head-to-head with him in some instances, a child is his more frequent rival. That's ironic. A little boy by the name of Edogawa Conan is the one most often posted on the front page to rival the thief. I pulled up a picture of him from the front page of a paper on the screen. Besides the obviously stupid apathetic look on his face and the glasses, he bore a striking resemblance to our late Kudou Shin'ichi. I began to formulate a theory. I sat back and crossed my arms across my chest. I rolled my eyes to the clock. 9:23. I decided to get up and dressed, perhaps giving Hattori a call. I ran my hand through my hair and stretched a little.

Hattori actually called us first, saying that he'd like to meet up with us at a cafe at ten o'clock. It was at that point that I discovered that the girls had actually been up, since 7 in fact, but were surreptitiously discussing things about Kudou. I pondered what information he might have found or if he even found anything at all. Our group arrived first, about 20 minutes early. When Hattori came in I found myself a little surprised. Not only did he appear with two girls, pardon me I should say a woman and a younger girl, but also a familiar little boy.

"Mornin' y'all!" Hattori chirped, seemingly relieved from his past stress. "May I introduce Mouri Ran-chan, er...Kudou Yukiko-neechan, and..."

"Edogawa Conan?" I guessed. The entire other party looked at me in surprise. Chitanda intervened.

"I am Chitanda Eru, these are my other classmates and Classics Club members, Fukube Satoshi-san, Ibara Mayaka-chan, and Oreki Hotarou-san." She gestured to each of us in turn then smiled pleasantly at the other group. "Pleased to make you acquaintances. Hattori-san did you bring them here to help us search for Kudou Shin'ichi-san?"

"Er, yeah." I observed the kid whose name was Edogawa Conan during this whole spiel. He seemed to be watching me out of the corner of his eye while also scanning the rest of the group. He seemed to be a little on edge. For a child he sure acted more cautious then one. But then again, I'm not very good with kids so I can't really judge; I haven't been around them all that much. It was at this point that we all decided to conjoin some tables and have a seat. I sat in the corner next to Chitanda who was squished up against me. I felt unnaturally warm and uncomfortable, but there wasn't any time to fester over these problems; our meeting began.

"So you're looking for Shin'ichi?" Mouri-san exclaimed. "Or, I mean..."

"Yes," Chtanda said, her eyes quickly taking on their curious glint. "Did you have any sort of relationship with him?"

"Yes. I...he's a very close friend..."

"Oh don't be shy Ran-chan! She's my future daughter-in-law!" grinned the one who Hattori dubbed 'Kudou-neechan'. She still looked youthful for the wife and mother of two detectives, in my opinion.

Mouri-san smiled and laughed faintly. Edogawa-kun, I had noticed, blushed and fidgeted a little at this statement made by 'Shin'ichi's mother'. I decided to try and turn my attention to asking that little boy questions, but it seemed Chitanda read my mind and, thankfully, asked my inquiries instead.

"Conan-kun?"

He started. "Y-yes?"

"How old are you?"

"Seven..."

"Do you know Kudou-kun?"

"Yes. He's my cousin," Edogawa-kun grinned nervously again. Kudou-neechan smiled. I happened to think this was highly suspicious, but I wasn't too concerned. I noticed, though, that Hattori-kun was glaring at me through squinted eyes. I, in turn, made an apathetic face back at him then asked to be let out to go to the restroom. The row of my friends scooted out then I got out, feeling a wave of relief wash over me. I nodded my head curtly to thank them for moving then headed on my way. I heard a squeak of "me too!" come from that small child behind me. Great, I sighed. He bounded up next to me.

"It was getting a little tight in there," he beamed.

"Uh-huh," I replied blandly. I pushed open the door. I went up to the sink, he went into one of the stalls. I stood for a moment contemplating my next move; my hand went instinctively up to my head and tugged lightly on a tuft of hair. If this kid was Kudou-kun, how did he get this way? Bad experimentation? Some drug test? His mother is a retired actress, his father, a novelist and detective, now we just need a crazy doctor or mad scientist uncle and the circuit would be complete, and that would explain everything. No. Think a little deeper. Detectives tend to get themselves into trouble. And according to many detective shows, a lot of enemies that escape from prison and want revenge. So maybe a deranged scientist that he locked up poisoned his food?

The little boy came back out and up to the sink to wash his hands. I glanced at him and made up my mind. I awkwardly cleared my throat and turned to address him.


	4. Chapter 4

"Kudou Shin'ichi..."

I stared back at him in horror. "...that's your real name, right?" The gravity of what he was saying did not show on his face at all. There was no maniacal smirk, evil grin or anything otherwise.

I tried to laugh it off. "Ha, ha, ha, that's funny Oreki-niisan! How can I be Shin'ichi-niichan?"

He looked at me, seeming to decide whether or not to continue. "Hmm, this is only a theory, on my part," he said slowly. "I was thinking of running it by you first before I tell the others, seeing as you are Kudou."

"W-what's the proof that I am?" I suddenly understood the feeling of a culprit who I had singled out as a murderer.

"If I really have to explain it all, I suppose I could. It can't be helped." He rubbed his head calmly. "Besides your obvious nervousness and caution around us as we asked questions about Kudou being a dead giveaway," well thanks, I'm trying my best. "you continue to look very similar to the teenage version of yourself and the younger version of yourself as well. Glasses aren't' really a very good cover up for identity. Also, I suppose you don't know how big of a foot mark on the internet you've left. You and your legendary disappearance are all over the place." I guess I need to do a little touch-up work on that...

"I've heard about you face-offs with Kaito Kid as well and about how you solve cases with a little band of kids called the Detective Boys. For being in hiding you certainly put yourself out there." he turned and looked off into space. "Your friend Hattori doesn't help much either." Yeah, I know that, I laughed quietly.

"Now as for my theory about you..." I braced myself for the worst. "I think I know just about what happened, but correct me if I'm wrong. It started when you were with Mouri-san at Tropical Land." He tugged on a piece of hair then crossed his arms. "You probably saw something you shouldn't, perhaps a blackmailing case, and was unfortunately caught by one of the people in the exchange. Knowing them, they probably knocked you unconscious somehow, a hit to the back of the head is my guess, then they gave you a drug to kill you. This drug probably wasn't tested very well before they took it for use, but what was supposed to kill you actually shrunk you, to your favor."

"How is this to my favor?" I interrupted. He gave me a quick glance then raised his head and looked at the ceiling.

"To your favor...let's see, how to put it. They don't know of your existence, at this point, or if they do, they don't find you a threat. You've slid into the background, therefore your movements have been hidden..."

"...That means I can work to bring them down without them knowing," I added with realization. "That's true. So I can protect her as well, because the same thing has happened to her..."

"'Her'?" Oreki thought for a moment. "would that be that Obara person...?"

"It's Haibara. HAI-bara." I replied, slightly irritated.

He shrugged carelessly.

I sighed. These kind of people get on my nerves, they never really care about anything. "She used to be in the organization," I allowed.

"Oh?" he drew out. "Interesting. But as for the rest of what happened to you, it seems that I don't need to explain..."

"Yes," I agreed popping open my watch. I had to have him out until I could figure out a way to keep him quiet which wouldn't be easy.

"So, what do you think I should tell that bothersome girl out there?" I paused mid-aim then quickly hid my watch as he looked back at me.

"Huh?"

"I can see that nothing should be said about this," he added casually as he stuck his hands in his pockets and began moving towards the door. "But I do need to give her an answer or she'll bother me the rest of my life."

I grinned. "Alright, I understand bothersome girls...so how about we do this..."


	5. Chapter 5

"I believe we have fulfilled our mission." I began, returning back to the table with the small boy following.

"What do you mean?" Chitanda queried.

"Yeah, we barley started investigating…" Satoshi added. He then seemed to look at me a little more thoroughly then leaned back with a grin in his chair. He knew.

Mayaka gazeed at me. "So you've figured it out already, huh?" she said.

"Well, more or less," I replied apathetically. Kudou, at this point, walked around behind me and sat down in his spot on the booth. He passed me a glance and I gave an imperceptible nod.

"You mean to say that you've found Shin'ichi?" Mouri-san squeaked. "Where is he?" I noticed Yukiko-san give Kudou a look. I wondered what kind of conversation was going on between the mother and son in that silence.

"This is my 'deduction'," Hattori flashed a worried glance at Kudou. I breathed in and began.

"Kudou witnessed a dealing between two shady men and the park called "Tropical Land" during which he was unfortunately beaten." Mousri-san made a quiet gasp. "He lost his memory for a while after being found by the police and was confined to the hospital. However, he regained his memory after a series of events which are unimportant and was able to continue being a detective. But he was not put back in school and was rather put under the surveillance of his parents and the police that just in case these men in black should fear that he is still alive so that he maybe protected. He has been keeping on the down-low as best as possible and has been researching how to track down these men, but, as I said, has been continuing to investigate cases."

"But then," Mori-san asked. "why doesn't he ever come to visit? Surely coming to school is more low-key that disappearing off the face of the Earth!"

"Well as for that, isn't your father a famous detective?" Satoshi intervened. "And if he's associated with a famous detective and his cases wouldn't he become well-known as well?"

"I suppose…"

"But normal people his age, our age, go to school. That's just a regular occurrence, right? Nothing's more low-key than simply being a normal student." Mayaka argued.

I was at a loss. Kudou hadn't prepared me for this kind of question, but I should have thought of it at least…

"Shin'ichi-niichan is really good at soccer," the teenager-turned-child piped up, saving me from an unbelievable excuse. "He would be recognized if he were ever put in the newspaper for winning a championship or something!"

"Then why not just stop playing soccer?" Mayaka pressed.

Mori-san shook her head. "Taking away soccer from him is like taking the Sherlockian out of him! He would become super bored and really unhappy!" She turned back to me, "So do you know where he is now?"

"I…"

It was at that point that a scream was heard throughout the restaurant and that sound of a dish clattering to the floor quickly followed. The entire group stood, mouths agape, but Hattori and Kudou immediately dashed towards the location of the noise. Out in the dinning area a bedlam of noise arose as a rumor quickly spread that there was a corpse in the freezer. I encouraged all of the girls to stay and motioned for Satoshi to come, we then followed the tracks of the two sleuths back to the kitchen.

**Sorry if I just killed the story for you because you were hoping for a crime-free case...please bear with me. (bows deeply on floor) Forgive me! until next chapter which I hope to post soon as to not leave you hanging...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay all, before we start, I'd like to give a shout-out to everyone that left comments that helped motivate me to write!**

**Also, I might do some character POV switching; I'll try to make the switches clear ****)!**

* * *

Analysis

It was actually found that the person was not yet dead, but quite close to it. Too much longer in the freezer and he would have been a goner! At least that's a little off my chest. But he was in pretty bad shape. The police (led by Hattori's friend Otaki) identified him as 34-year-old Takana Jun, a chef here at this restaurant. His injuries include a severe hit to the back of the head, and frostbite.

The culprit must work in this restaurant; how else could he put the body in here and not be suspected of something strange?

"Kudou, don't ya find it a bit odd?"

"Yeah, that he wasn't found until now? That's a long time to be in a freezer without being found."

"Then that means..."

"It must be someone that works with frozen foods here at this restaurant!"

Hattori and I are almost always on the same field when it comes to solving cases, and if not, then I'm usually the one who's right. We split up and started looking for clues. I followed one of the officers out to the parking lot where they were conducting some interviews. There were three particular people that had been called out, the rest of the staff had alibis. I then had a sudden suspicion about who it might be. By looking at the three suspects, two men and a woman, I could almost instantly tell. I also had a sneaking suspicion as to how they pulled off the crime as well.

I tugged on an officer's shirt and he turned then crouched to my level. "Otaki-san asked me to tell you to check that man's car trunk." The officer nodded then went to do my bidding. I waited for the results.

* * *

Analysis

Satoshi's face immediately waned as he saw the person being carried out on a stretcher. It was a bit of a mess with the tiny cuts and a welt on the back of the head, not to mention the bruised back. I then realized it probably wasn't a good idea to bring someone like him to a crime scene, but I was hoping he could point out any facts he might notice, being a fan of Sherlock Holmes and all. I sighed and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"If you're not very good with this kind of thing..."

"Nah, I'm fine," he assured me with a fake smile.

I shrugged. "He's not dead," I reminded him. Then I began to look around for any hints.

"Hotarou."

"Hmm?"

"Why are you investigating this?"

"Why...you say." I shrugged again. "Well I don't know, I just feel like I'm expected to."

"What about your energy saving?"

"I'm running on a full charge, so I can do something. Would you quit nit-picking and just help me?" I became a little irritated with the whole conversation. I can make my own choice if I want to do something or not. Besides, I guess I'm a little...curious."

"I'll go ask one of the officers for an analysis of the body," Satoshi informed me with a sly grin. "being in here gives me the creeps." I nodded and he bounded off. I looked around in the freezer for a bit and didn't find anything of interest then stood up and began to walk to the back door when I nearly slipped in a puddle. I caught myself, but just barely. I stepped back then crouched and looked at it. It smelled of wine, but only faintly. Chitanda would probably notice it almost instantly, given her refined senses. I then noticed something glint under the island in the center of the kitchen. I reached under to grab it then recollected all the detective shows I had watched before under my kotatsu while experiencing life as a hermit crab, and decided to grab some kitchen gloves. What I pulled out was a shard of green glass, such as one from a wine bottle. I began to put some pieces together to solve this puzzle. But there was still a portion missing.

I pondered over this then heard a door slam in the background. I heard a loud rattling sound above my head and noticed wine bottled hanging from the ceiling in a wooden rack. I jumped back out of the way of the bottles just in case one slipped loose. It then occurred to me the trick to the situation.

At that point Satoshi came back and pulling out his notebook, relayed some information the officers found in the car. "There were trace amounts of blood that were in odd shapes, the identification of the blood is to be determined," he told me. "And a strong smell of alcohol, specifically wine, came form the back of the car. Everything else was normal."

"The body smelled of wine as well," my hand moved to my head.

Satoshi smirked. "You've figured it it our already?"

"More or less. Will you hear me out?"

* * *

Deduction

Hattori and I met up again and compared theories and evidence. They matched. We both grinned in victory. We were closing in on this case, and so began to set up for our deduction. Because I still needed to hide my identity from those other people out in the cafe, Hattori would handle most of the deduction.

I bounded happily back to the table to see the situation there. My mom and Ran sat patiently waiting and having a polite conversation with the Chitanda girl and the other girl sat quietly and listened, but I noticed the lack of Oreki and the other guy. I shrugged, they probably just got bored or something.

Hattori then re-entered the cafe area followed by Otaki, the other policemen, and the three suspects, signaling the start of our deduction.

"So, all the pieces fit and we've figured out the criminal behind the attempted murder-a Takana-san." Hattori began.

"Great," sighed one of the suspects. "High schoolers giving deductions! Is this even legal?"

Okati shushed him then turned back to Hattori to encourage him to continue. "Well, what we know," Hattori proceeded, "is that this was a per-meditated event. Takana-san was called up ta our suspects house fer a glass-a wine ta discuss some topics-a interest. But while he thought this was a normal meeting, he thought wrong.

"While there, our suspect attacked Takana-san with a bottle-a wine, hittin' him o'er the back-a the head in hopes ta kill him. He was then packed in the back-a the car and driven down here so that he could be hidden until a better place ta hide the body could be found. However, Takana-san had only passed out from the hit and woke up as he was bein' moved. Therefore he was hit on the back with another bottle-a wine, making him pass out again. He was then put in the freezer as originally planned.

"As fer identifying who the actual culprit is, is simple. The person with the blood in the back-a their car is the culprit, also, this person would have crushed glass in the bottom-a their shoes, mainly work in the section with the freezer and would have cuts on their hands from the broken glass... therefore the culprit is..."

"No one." A voice called out and fell heavily in the dramatic silence.

* * *

Deduction

I swallowed before I spoke and licked my lips. "There is no culprit." I repeated.

Everyone turned and stared at me, making me a bit nervous.

"What do ya mean by that?" Hattori asked, shifting into a ' how dare you challenge my authority' pose. I glanced over at Kudou, his face beheld a strange mixture of amusement and confusion.

"I mean what I said." I retorted right back. Don't look at me as if I just blew up Tokyo! The whole room began to feel very awkward so I continued, "This whole case is an accident. The person you mark as a murderer is only a victim of circumstance."

"Oreki-san..." I heard Chitanda say quietly from the corner. I dared not look over there.

"With all respect, you have the correct facts, but you are being too idealistic. The victim is...Fukayama Akira-san. Right?" the man who complained about teenage detectives started.

"R-right, but he planned this murder," Hattori refuted. "Ya don't know how ta..."

"Heiji-niichan, I want to hear what Oreki-niisan has to say!" I heard Kudou's squeakiest cute voice. I cringed on the inside. But I saw his face really held genuine curiosity (as did the faces of Chitanda and Ibara, but I ignored them).

I heard Hattori snort in irritation and saw him cross his arms. Let's see, "The events are simple. You over-complicated this whole event. Takana-san happened to be in the kitchen standing under the wine rack grabbing some spices to make a strawberry parfait. But someone, that being Fukayama-san, accidentally let the door slam in the other room, quite easy to do, in fact. When that happens the wine rack rattles.

"So Takana-san stood and heard the door slam, then one of the especially loose wine bottles fell and..."

I heard Chitanda let out a gasp.

"Fukayama-san heard the sound and rushed to see what happened and found Takana-san unconscious. Fearing the worst, he put the body into the freezer, because normal people don't call an ambulance when a person is injured. Anyway, he cleaned up the mess and tried to mop it, but didn't do a very good job." I glanced at Fukayama; he was blushing and looking at the ground.

"Then how do ya explain the blood in the car? And his cut hand?" Hattori added irritably.

"The blood in the car is none other than Fukayama's. What probably happened is that he was carrying a crate of wine to give to a friend, possibly our victim who might be a wine connoisseur, but it slipped out of his hand just as he was putting in into the car and one of the bottles cracked. Picking up the pieces he cut himself and dripped the blood on shards of glass. You should find this to be true from the blood tests. Satoshi?" I had him come in with the officer on cue to make the whole occasion more 'dramatic'. He handed me the papers and I glanced through them. "The blood belong to Fukayama, as stated here." I handed them to Hattori who scrutinized them then relented, handing them back to the officer.

I let out a sigh of relief, then realized my sudden thirst. I didn't want to take the energy to walk back over to the table only to be asked to stand up again and go somewhere else so I remained where I was. The room slowly began to move again and the rest of the Classics Club moved my way. I could only imagine their upcoming comments.

"Oreki! You could be a detective!"

"That was a amazing Oreki-san! It's incredible how you put that together!"

"As expected of Hotarou, the 'Classics Club's Detective'!"

This was all compiled with pats on the back and 'personal space destroyer' moves.

"Don't make such a big deal about it, it was just..." luck? No. "...I just knew something the detectives didn't."

"That was still amazing...!" Chintanda persisted.

I blocked out her comments and noticed Kudou standing a little way away looking my direction. We made eye contact and he seemed to give me a 'not bad' look. I raised my eyebrows in response, not quite sure what I even meant by it. I noticed Hattori walked over and crouch down next to Kudou and start whispering. I turned my attention back to my friends and continued to associate with them.

In the end, we stayed a little longer than planned due to the police needing our side of the story. It was pretty inconvenient, I just wanted to go home and go to sleep in my own bed. I realized I spent way to much useless energy on that incident that Satoshi dubbed the 'Bottle Incident'. He said it would be the shinning gem amongst all other achievements before and after because it was my first criminal case. There was no point in arguing with him that it wasn't a criminal case, it would just be another waste of energy.

As for Takana, he's fine and is recovering in the hospital. There might be charges against Fukayama for his actions, but we'll see. Hattori promised to keep us updated on that.

So the day finally came for us to go home. I was exhausted and was planning on sleeping on the train on the way back. Hattori, Kudou, Mori-san, and Kudou-san (which I decided over 'neechan') all waved goodbye to us and gave us parting words.

Hattori and Kudou pulled me over to the side and gave me 'good work's; thank you's; 'hope to see you soon'; and other such formalities. Then also gave me a harsh warning not to reveal anything about this occurrence beyond the case that I solved.

"I don't want to have to explain that again," I told them truthfully. "Not a word from me."

They nodded and smiled. I then boarded the train with the others and set off down the merry trail home. The gentle swaying of the train lulled me to sleep very quickly, but I was shaken awake by Satoshi who pointed to the girls; Ibara had her head slouched on Chitanda's shoulder and Chitanda had her cheek resting on Ibara's head. They looked utterly peaceful, which was what I wanted to be.

"Okay, so do you want to draw on their faces or something?" I said with an intentional bit of snark.

"No, but now that they can't hear you, can you tell me the resolution to Kudou case?"

"I'm not actually supposed to tell you," I replied.

"Hmm? Why not?"

"I was requested not to."

"By?"

"Hattori and Kudou."

"You mean to say you met him?"

I nodded. So did you.

"Can I take a guess?"

Sure, I gestured. "But I'll only tell you if you're wrong, no details."

As Satoshi explained his theories I shook my head according to his guesses, Then, desperate, he said jokingly, "Okay, how about, some villain poisoned him and turned him into a little kid or an animal?" I knew Satoshi was being ridiculous, but I didn't give him an answer. His eyes widened. "Are you serious? That seems like something from an anime!"

I shrugged. "Can I go to sleep now?" Satoshi sat in bewildered silence. "I'm going to sleep. Oh, you can't tell anyone you know this, okay?" Not waiting for a response, I turned in my seat and faced the window, letting the monotone scenery pass by and soothe me to sleep.

**There we go! There might be an epilogue...maybe? I don't know. I hope you enjoyed reading this. I really appreciate your reviews and such! **

**P.S. If you have read the novels, you might see a little bit of a difference in Oreki's personality, but it's only a little. I want to finish the books soon, but translation is slow (sad day). (Also please forgive mistakes in grammar/spelling I checked it, but I'm not perfect especially late at night!)**


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